Eye of the Tiger
by Crystal Sparda
Summary: A mysterious demon hunter teams up with Dante for a much more personal reason than he knows... R&R, PLEASE! If I get at least 5 reviews, Chap 5 will come! Its getting better, I promise!
1. Cousin Dearest

Authors Note- Hey DMC fans! I wrote this story a while back, but I had to go through and edit it. I had SO MANY things that I had to fix. This is edited and I get to write for this story in my Creative Writing class. I am a DMC fan, and if you see anything wrong, please calmly tell me! No flaming! Just read and review.

Chapter 1 "Cousin Dearest"

Blood stained her pure white hair as it fell in front of her eyes. She pushed the few short strands behind her right ear and then struggled to get to her feet. Blood dripping from her lips and forehead, she picked up the sword that got thrown a few feet to her right. Fiercely, she stared into the creature's hidden face, looking for a weakness. The creature was floating about two feet above the cement floor. It was covered with a black cloak and had bony arms coming out of both sides. Its face however, remained unseen.

Crystal, a woman about twenty years old, was searching for a relative that she never knew she had. She had decided to leave home when she was seventeen to start searching for a cousin that her father had told her about. Her father was brothers with a man that he called Sparda. That was all he told her. Lately, Crystal had been going through some weird physical changes. The first time she noticed that she would change, was when she was sixteen and seven months. She had noticed her nails would grow longer than usual when she grew upset or impatient. The first time she completely changed was two years ago.

Quickly, Crystal slid her sword into her case on the left side of her belt, then grabbed her fire whip and whipped it out. In less than a second, she had her whip wrapped around the creature and pulled the hideous monstrosity closer to her face. She reached behind her back with her left hand and pulled out her shot gun, cocked it, then shot the monster a few good times. The creature moaned an eerie groan then fell to the ground and died.

"You better stay like that." Crystal sighed with relief. _How hard can it be to find a young guy with white hair? _she wondered.

A crackling neon sign caught her eye from the other end of the street. Devil May Cry read the sign.

"Hm? That seems to mean something." Crystal said to the air in front of her. "I have a feeling that the person I'm looking for is in there. If he isn't there, I'll just ask if he knows anyone like the person I'm looking for."

She walked to the door, but then stopped right when her hand touched the knob. A shiver ran up her spine then she opened the door. The room had no sign of life in it. There was a drum set in the far left corner with an electric guitar on its stand in front. A dart board hung on the wall along with skulls of different shapes and sizes. A large wooden desk sat in the middle of the room. There were papers, five pizza boxes, and two guns littering the desk. Crystal walked to the desk to see what secrets the papers held. Pictures of evil looking men were paper clipped to a few dozen papers.

"May I help you?" a firm manly voice asked from behind her.

Crystal swung around, not expecting a sword to be two inches from her face, but still happened anyways. "I-, I-, I am so sorry for intruding!" was all Crystal could make out. _He has white hair. He must be..._

"Who are you?"

The sword still hung in front of her face.

"I am Crystal Sparda, daughter of Orien Sparda."

"You are a Sparda? You don't look like my father! Now tell me who you are!"

"Honestly! I swear on my father's grave! My father was your uncle!" Crystal cried.

"Very well," Dante lowered his sword. "I am Dante Sparda, son of Sparda. Tell me about my 'uncle'.

"My father, your uncle, was a great man. He taught me well in weaponry. He had white hair and a calm face. If you asked him to do something with you, he would do it without giving his opinion about it. All of that changed when he died. He passed away when I was sixteen and before he died, he told me to look for you. I have spent two years looking for you. Now that I have found you, I don't know what to do."

Dante, now sitting at his desk with his feet propped up, gave small shocked look. "I'm sorry. If I would've known-"

"No. It isn't your fault." She interrupted. "He died protecting me and my sister. Unfortunately, my sister died with him."

"How about I let you stay here for a while? If you do, I won't be here very often. I go out on... missions."

"What do you mean, 'missions'?"

"My job is to hunt demons, but I doubt you believe me."

"No, no, no. I believe you, in fact, I am part demon, I guess."

Dante leaped from his seat when he heard the last part. "WHAT! Well I can kinda understand with you being related to me and all."

"Well, uh, yeah. I guess I could stay here. Like I have anywhere else I could stay." Crystal said with a grateful smile as she leaned over Dante's desk.

"Are you strong and well-developed with your powers?" Dante said as he got up out of his seat and took his jacket off to hang up. "If you are, you could help me."

"I'd love to join you! I still need some training with my powers, but I think that won't be a problem." Crystal said as she took a seat on a couch beside a refrigerator. "Nice place ya got here."

"It's not much, or at least not for now. It gets pretty boring around here. The only things I get called for around here are ghost sightings. Now _that's _a trip." Dante said as he sat back down at his desk and propped his feet up again.

"So, what was your last mission?" Crystal asked, looking at the ceiling.

"Arkham. If you noticed, there was a giant tower in the middle of the city. That was his place."

"Yeah. Its hard to miss. I heard from my father that you have a brother."

"I don't want to talk about it." Dante said as he got up and walked into the bathroom and slammed the door.

"Okay, cool. I'll find out sooner or later." Crystal whispered to herself as she lie down on the couch and fell asleep.


	2. Crystal's Past

Chapter 2 "Crystal's Past"

"Crystal..." _No! Daddy! Don't leave me!_

"Crystal!" _That calling isn't dreaming..._

"Crystal, wake up. It's me, Dante."

_Now I know I'm awake._ "Mmmfmm"

"I just got a call. It's time for another mission. This time, it's a real one."

Crystal sat up on the couch, clothes wrinkled. The same black outfit she had been wearing for a few weeks, plus a cape with a hood that was a deep blood red. "What time is it? Do you have any food?"

"It is five-thirty. Here. Eat this. It will have to do." Dante mumbled, tossing her a chunk of stale bread.

Crystal took a few bites then tossed it to the side. She got up and went to the bathroom to freshen up.

"I'm in kind of a hurry if you don't mind." Dante groaned, taping his foot while standing at the door.

"Fine, let's go then!" Crystal yelled then walked out the front door as she pulled her dripping wet hair back, which caused her shorter bangs to fall out.

They left and about seven minutes later, Crystal found herself standing before the immense tower that used to be 'Arkham's'.

"This is a good field test to find your strengths and weaknesses. Can you devil trigger yet?" Dante said, just about ready to open the door.

"You mean change? Yeah," Crystal took a step back and concentrated for a moment. Then slowly, she transformed into a demon that looked very similar to Dante's devil trigger. The only difference was that she had a green theme like color to her scales, while Dante had red.

"Interesting. How long can you stay like that?"

"About an hour" came a dark, low pitched hum of an answer.

"Then let's go!"

Two and a half hours later...

"Man, that was a rough training session!" Crystal said as she limped out the door into the blinding sun, then fell to her knees.

"We should go back now. We can finish this mission tomorrow." Dante said as he picked Crystal up and carried her the five blocks to the office.

"Thanks"

"We're here." Dante said gently, and then placed Crystal on the couch. "You never told me why you were searching for me."

"My father kind of told me to look for you. He said that my life rested in your hands." Crystal said like she was seeing her past.

"So, I know I asked before, but what was he like?" he said, sitting by Crystal's feet.

"He was wonderful, yet mysterious. He never really talked about my mom or being a demon. He was more of a loner. I also had a sister. She was a year and a half older than me. Her name was Kiara. She died when I was sixteen." Crystal paused to let a tear run down her cheek. "I never thought that my life would turn out like this. I've lost everyone in my family except you. I don't know if I could move on."

"I know the feeling. My father died when I was young, so I never got to know him. My brother doesn't know how to control the anger so he always fights against me, or at least that is what it feels like." Dante said as he got up to sit down at his desk, obviously with his feet up on it. "You want some pizza? I'm gonna order some, and then jump in the shower. Is that cool with you?"

"Yeah, I guess." Crystal said, sitting up a little. "How long do you take in the shower? I would like to take one after you. I also need to wash my clothes."

"I take about a half hour. I have some spare clothes for you to wear if you want. Do you want cheese pizza?"

"Sure. Not like I have anything else to wear. Yeah, cheese'll have to do."

Dante picked up the phone and called the pizza place. "Hello? Uh, yeah. It's Dante. I'll have the regular and I'd also like to add a medium cheese pizza in there. Thanks. Bye." Dante hung the phone up then walked to the bathroom door, then stopped. "Pizza will be here in forty-five minutes or it's free."


	3. Through the Eyes of the Tiger

Chapter 3 "Through the Eyes of the Tiger"

As she gazed at the hibernating city, Crystal wiped a hidden tear from her eye. "Devils NEVER cry…" she muttered to herself. She thought she heard a noise coming from the bushes behind her, causing her reflexive routine of pulling out her whip so it could snap the bushes to take action. She saw a bright red jacket peeking through the bushes. "Hmph. You're going to have to do better than that, Dante!"

"Fine, you caught me. What are you doing alone up here by yourself? This is where most of my missions end!" Dante said, taking a seat next to Crystal on the dewy grass.

"I needed to clear my head," she said making up a partial lie. "Whenever I miss my father, I go outside and look at his constellation. After all, he is up there. You know, Orion?"

"Nah, I never had a taste for stars. Where is he?" he said, gesturing to the sky.

"He's right there," she held her face close to his and tried to aim for the constellation. "My mother used to tell me stories and make up constellations to go along with them. She was such a great astrologer. She knew just about everything about the sky. She taught me everything I know about it." She pulled her knees to her chest and hid her face in them.

"Aw, come on! Whatever happened to 'Devils never cry'?"

"I'm not crying! I'm just…trying to remember what he felt like. Smelled like. _Sounded_ like. I haven't seen my father in do long."

"Welcome to the club," Dante joked, offering out a hand to shake. She didn't react.

"That's easy for you to say! You still have a brother!" Crystal yelled, getting up and glaring at him.

"Yeah, I do. But I don't get along with him like you might think!" Dante yelled back as he looked her dead-on in the eyes. "He isn't at all like family…"

"Really? Then what is he?" Crystal said through clenched teeth, daring him to answer.

"He's… well, he's my twin brother," Dante calmly stated, then sat back down.

"You just don't understand. I watched both my father and my sister die right before my eyes. It _hurts_. Just knowing that if I would have been just a little bit smarter then, I could have saved them." Crystal said, dropping herself back onto the ground.

"You really think that you could have saved them?" Dante asked trying to make a point.

"Well, yeah. If I would have known more about my powers, I actually would have been able to at least do something that could have prevented…" she paused. "…_It_ from happening."

"You're right. I should be happy that I still have my brother. There is one thing you need to understand. My brother isn't exactly what you would call a good guy. He tries to get my father's power and use it to take over the demon world."

"Well, I guess I'll give you that." Crystal retorted. "I'm going to go look for more demons to get my mind off this mess," She said, getting up, and then pointed to the immense Tower-of-Pisa-like building towering over the rest of the city.

"I'll meet you down there later. Just don't go and get yourself killed."

"Nice encouragement, Dante!" Crystal sarcastically yelled as she ran down the hill and headed into the large almost rundown town.


	4. The Medallion

Author's note: HEHE! I can't believe it! I got my fourth short chapter up! I've noticed that I've only gotten one review for this fic... That makes me upset. This is a GOOD story. It deserves reviews! I don't care if they're bad! That means that you are helping me get better! I'm taking a wild guess here, but I think the reason no one is reviewing my story is because of A: my name, B: my previous fics, or C: they don't read my story and are not following the plot. Tsk, tsk, tsk… U hurt my feelings… maybe, if I get at least five reviews, then I'll post a fifth chapter. I'm doing all this writing in my creative writing class, and if I stop writing, I won't pass! U don't want to see me fail, now do u? Then REVIEW FOR GODS SAKE!

Standing on top of a bookshelf, Crystal was safe for a few moments from the demons searching for her. It was dark, and from what she's seen, they don't see too well in the dark. Unfortunately, one of the bony figures made her out and called out to his companions in a deadly moan. When the leader turned back around, she was gone. There was a moment's delay before Crystal dropped from the ceiling, pulled out her five foot katana, and put away with all five of the demons. She sheathed her blood covered sword, and then slowly stood up. Crystal walked over to a shelf then skimmed through the books. Most of the titles didn't interest her. She was looking for a certain book.

"You must be looking for something special here," Dante said, just casually strolling up to her.

Crystal jumped, startled, unaware that Dante had even come in. "How did you get here so fast?"

"You took care of everything for me. Gosh, you could have just left me a shadow cat! So how come you came here?" Dante said, picking up a book and flipped through the pages. "Damn, no pictures."

"I'm here to find information…"

"Well, duh!" Dante retorted, throwing his hands up in the air. "Information about what?"

"I need information on finding my family murderer! I know that he is still out there. The only thing I know about him is that his name is Alacur. So I thought if I came here, I would find something, but I've got nothing so far." Crystal implied, leaning up against the bookshelf, and then let herself fall to the floor.

"You know, maybe I could possibly help you find this guy," Dante mumbled under his breath as he sat down next to her and put his arm around her shoulders. "After all, I am a demon hunter and I have never lost a case."

"I came looking for you. I meant to get your help. That, and the fact that you just so happened to be living in the same town as the library I needed to get to. I guess that means you are going to help me find Alacur," She just stared ahead, not really looking at anything in particular. "I think we have some uninvited guests coming."

The two white-haired half-breeds got up, turned into their Devil-trigger, and then went into the next room to fight the leftover demons.

"So, how did you find out that you were part demon?" Dante asked, as he took out a blood-goyle with a few slashes of his sword and several rounds from his shotguns, Ebony and Ivory.

"Well, I guess it was when my father fought Alacur the second time," Crystal responded, slashing through the three abyss that were heading her way with her specially made daggers that curled around the handles. "It took me a while to comprehend exactly what was going on. I always felt that I had some kind of special power inside of me, just waiting to break free." She barreled through the soul eaters and ended up back to back with Dante.

"So, you say that this guy's name is Alacur? I think I may have some information about him back at my shop," Dante said, as he shot at the soul eaters and Crystal cracked out her ice whip and started freezing every enemy she whipped. "Nice whip! Where'd you get it?"

"My father gave me lessons since I was eight. He taught me all of the moves I know now, except for a few I made up that are tweaked versions of his," she yelled, as she fought off the last two blood-goyles. "Wait, you have information back at your shop? Why didn't you tell me this before? I need that information!"

"You should have spoken up and told me what it was that you needed. I think that I have a few books and journals that I found here," Dante commented, twirling his guns around his index fingers then putting them in the holsters on his back. "I thought the books seemed kind of interesting. I thought that maybe I could get another mission if I read through them. We can go back now that we finished these guys off."

"Fine, but I need those books. They mean the world to me since they are the only things remaining I could use to track down Alacur. He will pay in blood for what he did to my father and sister." Crystal remarked as she turned around and headed out of the library door.

"Okay. You want me to order some pizza when we get back to the shop?" Dante asked, chasing after her.

"Is that the only thing you eat, pizza? You really need to try something new," Crystal demanded. "I have to get you out more…"

Stepping out into the blinding sun, Crystal searched the street for a decent eatery. She couldn't live off of pizza alone. "Hey, Dante, do you have a Chinese place around here? At least it would be different than what we had last night. Do you have any ideas?" Crystal said stepping over the rubble in the street left over from the Temen-ni-gru breaking out of the ground.

"Uh, yeah, how about we get pizza?" Dante joked, emerging from the dark and gloomy building.

"Ugh! No PIZZA!" Crystal screamed, turning into her devil trigger with flames engulfing her, scaring Dante quite a bit.

"Fine, we can go to Tony's. They have quite an assortment of foods. Just don't get on his bad side." Dante said, waving his arms around. "Here, I'll show you where it is so that if you ever want to go there again for some other meals, you can." Dante gestured down the street.

"That's better." Crystal returned to her human form and followed Dante to the restaurant.

The outside of the restaurant had moss growing on the walls and iron bars over the windows, much like a prison. The windows were covered by neon lights of Alcoholic beverages and outdated take out menus. Dante opened the door and gestured into the dark restaurant. Inside the eatery, the walls were cleaner, but the stench of cigarettes slightly ruined the appeal. They sat down at a two-person booth and waited for the waitress to come.

"Hey, baby. I haven't seen you around lately," the young waitress flirted to Dante. "Who is this girl you're with tonight?"

"Hey, Christy, this is Crystal. She says she is my cousin," Dante said firmly.

"Hi," was all Crystal said.

Christy put a hand on her hip. "Well, she looks almost like you. She has very similar facial features as you. Back to business. What do you want tonight?"

Dante glanced down at the menu. "I'll have a beer and some piz-"

Crystal cleared her throat, hoping Dante got her point.

"I'll have a coke and a burger," Dante gave the menu back to Christy then glared at Crystal. "Happy?"

"Yes, I'm happy. I'll have a coke and some pasta with the sauce on the side." Crystal handed her menu to Christy as well.

"So-" before Dante could say anymore, a Hell Vanguard busted the restaurant door in and headed straight towards Dante, and possibly Crystal. "Damn it! Can't I go one day without having to get rid of you guys?"

Crystal jumped up as well and quickly took out her ice whip. "How about I take care of this one?" Crystal smirked.

"Sure, just get it out of here and into the street!"

Crystal wrapped her whip around the demon's scythe, freezing it, then threw it out of the restaurant causing it to shatter into millions of pieces. The demon followed her out of the eatery then lunged at her once she stood outside. Crystal jumped out of the way at the last second.

"Oh, so that's how you want to play, eh?" Crystal pulled out her hand scythes and charged right back at the Hell Vanguard, cutting off its arms. As it stood in shock, Crystal stabbed the monstrosity in its stomach, causing it to turn to dust and just blow away. "That was pretty easy."

Just as Crystal thought the fight was over, a medallion rose up from the ground and shone brightly.

"Crystal, look out!" Dante yelled, running towards her and then hit her harder than a professional football quarterback. The medallion shot a beam of light, hitting Dante and Crystal, who lie on the paved street. They fell unconscious as the blinding light absorbed them.


End file.
